WESTMINSTER — After more than 35 years as a town manager around Vermont, Westminster Town Manager Sonia Alexander is retiring.
Again.
She thought she had retired for good in 2006, after nearly 30 years of service in Wilmington.
She had actually “retired” once before in 1984, telling Wilmington that she wanted to take care of her children. But two years later, in 1986, the Selectboard there asked her to return.
Her retirement in 2006 was even more short-lived. While on vacation in Montreal, she got a call from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns (VLCT), asking whether she would be interested in serving as the interim town manager for Stowe.
True to form, she accepted, served for a little less than six months, and thought she was ready to retire once again.
But Westminster came calling in 2008, and she was back on the job.
Now, after three years, Alexander is moving on. She gave notice at the Town Meeting in February that she would be leaving her job on June 30 - the end of the current fiscal year.
The 70-something Alexander said that, this time, she's not saying anything about retirement. Considering her reputation around the state, some other town might make her an offer she can't refuse.
Alexander said that her position as town manager for Westminster has been enjoyable.
“It's a lot less complicated” than the jobs in Wilmington and Stowe, she said.
“Wilmington has a Sewer and Police Department, which Westminster doesn't have,” she explained.
Alexander said that she is used to working with a lot more staff than she has in Westminster, but notes that town employees are all “very good at what they do. It's just different, but there's still a lot to do here.”
A pioneer
Alexander's career as a town manager began back in 1976, when she and her husband moved from Colorado to Wilmington, where she ended up applying for and getting the job as Town Manager.
While Alexander said that she does not have a college degree, “that never got in the way of doing my job.”
She said that before she came to Vermont, she had worked for oil companies in Alabama, where she was born, as well as for savings and loan corporations.
“I had great parents, and I was the oldest child,” she said. “I always loved learning and research. I never felt limited by my education.”
As the first female town manager at the time, she was elected president by the Vermont Town and City Management Association. She said that there were two other female town managers at the convention that year.
“One from Alabama and one from Alaska. So, yeah, I guess we were kind of rare.”
But Alexander said that it never occurred to her, nor did she find, that being a woman in the position was a hindrance.
“I try to treat people with respect, to listen to them, and try to help them where I can,” she said.
VLCT Executive Director Steven Jeffrey said he got to know Alexander when he came on the job in 1978.
“I come from the generation that believed in women's rights, and there was no job that women did not have a right to do,” he said, adding that it never crossed his mind that this point of view was anything unusual.
“She was very good at what she did,” he said.
“Town managers have always come from a wide spectrum of backgrounds,” Jeffrey continued. “Some have been road supervisors. A lot come from military backgrounds. And we have some who bring background skills you wouldn't think would be helpful in managing a town but turn out to be perfect fits.”
However, the new Westminster Town Manager must have at least a bachelor's degree, with a Masters in Public Administration or in a related field preferred. While the recent trend toward professionalism is common practice, Jeffrey said that “it's not always book learning you're looking for.”
Jeffrey added that there is “nothing in the [state] statute that says anything” about education requirements. “It's up to the towns to decide what they want.”
Mary Towne served as administrative assistant for 17 years to Alexander in Wilmington and said, “I enjoyed working with Sonia and learned a lot from her. She was a good town manager.”
Towne added that those years under Alexander, “were productive” and the town “grew under her watch.”
“She is a people person who can relate to anyone,” Towne added.
Apparently, Alexander acquired a reputation as “a hell of a poker player,” as well, according to Jeffrey. “She can think on her feet. She's bright.”
And she “lets her technicians do their jobs. She's a good delegator.”
The Westminster record
Alexander said that before leaving, she wanted to take care of the town budget, which she has done.
She reflected on other ways she has made a mark on town government. “The zoning application process has been streamlined,” she said. Applicants now need to present only to the Zoning Review Board, she said, whereas before, “people had to go before the Planning Commission as well.”
She noted that a July 2009, $648,000 grant from the Vermont Community Development Program, administered by the town, helped retool the former Coastal Imports plant switch to serve as a meat processing plant, now Westminster Meats.
“Farmers used to have to truck their product to New York state to get it processed,” she said. “It made sense to have one here. There's a real need to have someplace local [for farmers] to bring their meat.”
She said while Daniel Mandich of Green Mountain Economic Development Corp. wrote the grant, she was a part of the process, from the beginning, in getting the approval for the changeover from a seafood processing plant to a slaughterhouse.
Alexander now hopes to spend some time with her daughter who lives “back where I grew up - quite coincidentally - in Alabama.”
But she admits that she does not really know what the future holds.
“I used to tell people who asked what I'd do when I retired that I'd read a lot of good books and be sure to fit a couple of good naps in,” Alexander said with a laugh. “I don't say anything anymore. Look what happened the last time I said that.”
Jeffrey said that past town managers with her experience, of which he could name only a few in Vermont, have been asked to consult with municipalities.
“To the degree we can hit 'em up one more time before they ride into the sunset, we will,” said Jeffrey, adding that he knew Alexander wanted to spend time with her daughter, so he would wait and see if she would be amenable to such assignments.
“If she's out working in the community, she's doing a good thing,” he said.
Winnowing candidates
As for finding Alexander's successor, Selectboard member Toby Young said that the original list of 61 applicants that the VLCT passed on to the Town Manager search committee has been pared down to four.
“We've had one face-to-face interview and hope to have a finalist by Friday,” she said, adding that the board should have something definite to announce by the beginning of June.
“You know, it's a complicated process, because many of these applicants are applying other places, and it depends on whether they accept another job, or ...a lot can happen,” she said. “It's a very confidential process. Some of these people are holding other jobs.”
The committee is holding six special meetings in May to move forward the process of hiring a new Town Manager.